No regard for the surroundings

Trash trove

One of the largest developmental projects in the City –– the Bangalore Metro Railway Project –– has kept people waiting eagerly for the various reaches to start functioning. Sadly, just a look beneath the gigantic structures that are being constructed for the project, and one can find piles of garbage dumped in the middle of the road with no one taking responsibility for it.

On the stretch from Indiranagar to Ulsoor, the space between the pillars is currently being used to dump garbage. And that’s not all — even at other points like Kanakapura Road to Banashankari, where the Metro construction is still in progress, people are conveniently using the space to dump trash, which then goes unattended for days.

The authorities, however, are passing the buck and blaming one another to deal with the mess. The public, for their part, say that the sight of this trash is very embarrassing.
Prarthana, an engineering student, passes by Banashankari everyday to go to college.
And she has seen how people are using the construction space at the Metro sites to dump their garbage. “I go to the Banashankari bus stand regularly and I have noticed the mess. Not only is it embarrassing to see this, but the mess is not being cleared and is raising a stink, making it unbearable to even stand there. I really wonder how long we will have to tolerate this,” she adds.

Krishnan, a graduate, says, “There is an acute shortage of space to dump garbage. Unused places like these become targets, which end up causing inconvenience to all. But hopefully, someone will take notice of the same and do something about it.”

Nanda Kumar, a shopkeeper at the Banashankari market, agrees that people have no choice but to dump the garbage under the Metro construction since there’s no other space for it. “The garbage collectors are not regular . Most of the waste is rotten vegetables and fruits, so one can’t keep it inside the shop while waiting for the collector,” he adds.

That’s the sad plight everywhere. People conveniently blame someone else. Rajeev, a professional, says, that if the authorities speed up the construction process and tend to the garbage between the pillars, there can be some damage control. “There are a few stretches where saplings have been planted between the pillars and taken care of as well. But it’s not just the Metro — even if one looks under flyovers, like the one at Dairy Circle, they will see a lot of garbage. Once in a while, there is someone who comes and burns it,” he adds.

Aniket, a degree student, sums up, “It’s sad that people have to use such places to dump trash. I feel  that apart from the authorities, it is also our responsibility to keep the surroundings clean.”